Casa Battló is an Art Nouveau masterpiece in Barcelona, Spain designed by Antoni Gaudi. I stumbled across it while searching flickr for pictures of the Jules Verne House. Flickr member jennyfrisco has a great set of pictures of the house (better than any others I could find online), and describes the first on this way:
"The exterior suggests a fish skeleton, and the whole house has a nautical theme, having been built right in the era when Jules Verne's 20000 leagues under the sea was in great circulation."
I didn't find any other references to 20,000 Leagues in any other descriptions or histories of the house, so I don't know how accurate it is, but keep 20,000 Leagues in mind as you look at these pictures and you'll probably agree with her.
Doesn't this look like the interior of a submarine?
Bedroom Door
Loft Hallway
Another Flickr user, europe_trip2007, describes the house like this:
"Smooth white walls broken only by large, tortoiseshell-like windows. Wrought brass railings, stained lightly by age. Rich lacquered wood doorways in-laid with stained glass that changes colour depending on which side of the door you're standing on...
The white tortoise windows are meant to be like windows you'd find in an underwater house, the likes imagined by Jules Verne and other science fiction authors. The orange glass and brass railing sort of remind one of coral...? At least it did that for me. "
The Casa Battló website has detailed pictures of each room of the house. The Gaudi Gallery has many more pictures. The best article on the house is found in Architecture Week.
Index for the Jules Verne Week Extravaganza.
3 comments:
It's actually not shaped like a fish, but the dragon that St. George slew. St. George is the patron saint of Barcelona, where the building is located. The roof of the building looks like the dragon's spine, and there is a chimney-ish thing shaped like a cross/lance. The balconies look like skulls, which are the skulls (and bones) of everyone the dragon killed. The entire edifice is covered in colored tiles, which are the scales. I believe at one point it was a candy shop, but is now under private ownership, and tours are very expensive.
I can pull out some of my Gaudi books if you would like more information. =)
Oh, I see you already tapeworms the link. The house is Batjo magnifies In Barcelona there are many houses in style.
Congratulations on the blog
In Spain, Art Nouveau was called Modernismo. I was in Barcelona a couple of years ago and the visit to the Casa Batló was terrific. I highly recommend it to everyone.
Cheers from Spain,
Cibe.
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